Ariana Grande’s Half-Brother to Star on ’Big Brother 16’

The cast of the upcoming season of the CBS reality show "Big Brother" was revealed Thursday afternoon and 16 fresh faced men and women will spend the next three months competing for $500,000, including a female minister, a police sergeant and Frankie James Grande, the openly gay YouTube celebrity who also happens to be the half-brother of pop sensation Ariana Grande.

"Congrats to my big brother on being cast in season 16 of big brother," Ariana tweeted shortly after the cast was announced. "So proud of u / I’m a nervous wreck #bb16 you’re gonna kill it."

Frankie, 31, currently lives in New York City and in a "Big Brother 16" pre-show interview, he reveals he initially applied to be on "Survivor" but when he didn’t hear back, decided to apply for "Big Brother."

When CBS asked him to pick three adjectives that describe him, he chose: "sparkly, charismatic and unreserved."

Frankie plans to win the game by being "the happy likable person that everyone wants to keep around in the beginning, but I will be good at competitions" and use his power in the house to get the other houseguests on his side.

Grande, whose hometown is Boca Raton, Fla., says the moment he’s most proud of in his life is when he helped a student. He "came out to me and admitted that he was thinking about taking his life until he met me." Grande said. "He called me his angel who showed him the path to life."

Frankie has 546,000 followers on Twitter and nearly 190,000 subscribers on YouTube. He said if one his competitors recognizes him when they enter the house, he’s going to try to win the first challenge to guarantee safety and kick someone out.

Frankie’s 20-year-old little sis currently has the No. 2 song in America, "Problem," featuring Iggy Azalea and some have hailed the jam to be the Song of the Summer. She also dominated 2013 with her debut album "Yours Truly" and its singles "Baby, I," The Way," and "Right There."

Both Grande siblings are Broadway babies. In 2008, Ariana was featured in the short-lived musical "13." Frankie a former chorus boy from the Broadway cast of "Mamma Mia" recently took to wearing high heels as a contestant in the pre-Off Broadway revival of the drag musical "Pageant."

"Big Brother 16" has a two-night premier on CBS on June 25 and June 26.

CBS’s long-running reality show "Big Brother" has been plagued with controversy this summer due to its cast members spewing racist and anti-gay language during the show’s live feeds. And it doesn’t look like the hurtful comments will stop anytime soon.